By: Paul Kuehn
Fireworks: A Brief History
Fireworks were originally believed to be invented in 9th Century China. Actually, it would be more historically accurate to date it all the way back to 200 AD. It is believed that the original fireworks contained no gunpowder. Rather, fresh cut pieces of bamboo were tossed upon a fire. The tightly porous material would then heat the water caught in the chambers of the bamboo and emit a ‘firecracker’ noise.
Between 600 – 900 AD, a Chinese alchemist found that mixing charcoal, potassium nitrate and sulfur together with the addition of a flame would create an explosion. Thus, the modern fireworks were born (along with modern warfare). Europe started producing fireworks in the 14th century, but it wasn’t until 1758, when Pierre Nicolas Lee Chiron de’Incarville, a Jesuit missionary living in Beijing, shared the recipe for the Chinese colored fireworks with an article later published in the Paris Academy of Science, that fireworks as we now enjoy came into common usage.
The color of fireworks is obtained from compounds of various common metals. Copper chloride creates a blue light when vaporized; small particles of aluminum make a brilliant white light; simple charcoal dust is golden; calcium chloride is orange; lithium is red.
Fireworks are used in all nations as a form of celebration, even though its origin was to ward off evil. The obvious for us is the American celebration of Independence Day. World wide, Halloween and New Years is a pyrotechnical masterpiece. Disney Corporation is the largest user of fireworks in America. Disney has gone so far as to eliminate the use of gunpowder to launch their fireworks. Instead, Disney uses compressed air to launch for greater accuracy and less hazard to employees and visitors.
As you enjoy the July 4th fireworks extravaganza, you can now better understand the history that you are sharing. For over nineteen centuries, we are still overcome with the magnificence of the fireworks.
